There are No Spare Parts for Life
Photo: UCE facilitator reviewing AIDS facts
with hundreds of students in Iganga district,
Uganda,
July 2007
The UCE team leader
points right at a young man and asks, "If
your
sister came home pregnant and could not
finish her studies, would you be happy or
sad?" Without hesitation, the boy responds,
"sad".
The UCE facilitator
continues, "Boys, look around you at these
girls. They are someone's sisters. They have
families that would be disturbed to have
their goals cut short, these girls have a
future. We
are all brothers and sisters, we are each
other's responsibility."
A sense of
community
is created by the
UCE team, true empathy for each other as the
students begin to comprehend what really
caring for each other feels like.
The medical reasons of avoiding sexually
transmitted diseases
abound. Yet diseases are
secondary to
caring enough about another human being to
want what is best for them in this one
fragile life that we each have.
Fragility of
life is understood in the African culture
and so is the importance of
"spare parts". For in Africa, when something
breaks, one does not
just run out to the store for a whole new
thing, like we might here. When
something breaks in Africa, you go get a
spare part and try to FIX it.
But our
lives and our
purpose
are not disposable, nor easily reparable. As
the team explains to
the kids,
"life does not have spare
parts." As kids nod, intently
listening, the UCE team knows that they
have understood: This is important teaching,
this is what God wants.
Chastity is
about seeking the purpose of God which
involves loving each other more than
ourselves. As the UCE team leader emphasizes,
"This is
serious stuff".
"How then are we to do this?" the UCE
facilitator continues, and then answers:
"This takes discipline. What is
discipline?
You have discipline already: When you are
hungry and you pass by a market, do you steal
the food?" The kids shake their heads. "NO,
of course, you do not. This is discipline.
We
all can be disciplined when we choose to be
and God will give us the strength when we
feel weak. We can get support from each
other."
Making
the decision to abstain and be faithful in
marriage affects the individual, the
community and the nations that are hard hit
by AIDS.
Quick Links...
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Today is World AIDS Day. The theme for 2007
and 2008 is "leadership". How appropriate
that we recall the leadership that the
country of Uganda took in the fight against
AIDS. Uganda confirmed, to even the most
skeptical, that sexual behavior could be
changed. People can choose abstinence until
marriage and faithfulness thereafter, and in
so doing, win the battle against
AIDS.
But with 33 million around the
world infected, we must not forget
our brothers and sisters as they continue to
battle HIV/AIDS. Media influences
extolling life-styles not conducive to sexual
health, internet pornography, and condom
social marketing abound in Africa. The AIDS
crisis is not to be minimized nor should we
become complacent. We, as people who
are financially blessed, can help others
across the globe as they persevere with
fortitude against AIDS in choices they make
each day.
Read the article, "There are No Spare Parts
for Life" to understand how UCE Uganda team
leaders
convince youth to
stay healthy and avoid AIDS.
Please
keep this
ministry strong by praying for it, making a
gift, renewing a
gift or increasing a gift. May God Bless you.
Kim and Ken Dernovsek
To
make
a secure ONLINE DONATION...click here
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World AIDS Day:December 1st 2007
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"Hey! How was Africa?"
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Photo: Endless medical questions
for Dr Kim Dernovsek from the African students
People keep asking me, "Hey! How was
Africa?"To join the UCE teams in Uganda and
Burundi
and experience first-hand how they reach
youth with the message to "save sex for
marriage" was an inspiring experience.
They
bring this message home through their own
personal stories which are packed with
examples of the daily struggles each kid
faces within that African cultural context.
Not an event was without singing, often with
the youth standing to welcome us with song or
dance. The medical information that the teams
gave was accurate and culturally relevant to the
country. As young leaders themselves, the UCE
team encourages the kids to grasp the
importance of the message and then use their
faith to build their community with resolve
to support each other. If you'd like to read
in more depth about what we experienced in
each country, go to my posts on
the UCEglobal
blog...
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WHO/UNAIDS RELEASES STATS
(11/07)
Every eight seconds a person is
infected with HIV somewhere in the
world...Two-thirds
of the 33.2 million people with HIV live in
Sub-Saharan Africa...Young people between
15 and
24 account for one-third of new infections
worldwide ...
Uganda has
had the
world's
most dramatic success against AIDS.The HIV
prevalence in Uganda has dropped from 21% in
1991 to
6.7% in 2005. UCE has been part of the solution.
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Universal Chastity Education, Inc. (UCE) is an
educational organization established in 2004 and
determined to be a public charity, status 170
(b) (1)
(A) (vi), exempt from Federal income tax under
section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code. Its
purpose is to promote through education sexual
abstinence until marriage and marital
fidelity as
healthy lifestyles free from sexually
transmitted
diseases including HIV and AIDS. UCE operates in
Uganda,
AFRICA, with staffed headquarters in
Kampala and most youth outreach/educational
events take
place in rural Uganda. Universal Chastity
Education,
Inc. is duly registered under the Republic of
Uganda
Non-governmental Organisations Registration
Statute,
1989, certificate #6196. UCE activities
launched in
Burundi, AFRICA
in December 2006.
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